Hobart Scores – 9 / 15 (60%)
Apologies, I lost track of Hobart halfway through the week!
WTA Hobart R2 Predictions for Wednesday
Day 4 – 3/3
Bertens d. Voskoboeva in 2 sets – Nice to see Voskoboeva get her first WTA main draw win for 3 years. Still, I think Bertens, now with a match win under her belt, will go deep in Hobart.
Tsurenko d. Larsson in 3 sets – Head-to-head is 3-0 in Larsson’s favour but their last match was over four years ago and Tsurenko has improved a great deal since then. Close but going for Tsurenko.
Rogers d. Arruabarrena in 2 sets – Impressed by Rogers’s start and she seems to be enjoying her time in Hobart from her social media… Shelby for the win.
WTA Hobart R2 Predictions for Tuesday
Day 3 – 1/3
Petkovic d. Cepede Royg in 2 sets – One of the winners from all these withdrawals is Petkovic who plays a lucky loser for the second match in a row. Cepede Royg is not to be completely dismissed though. I considered three sets but Petkovic began her campaign in Hobart with a good win over Gibbs so going for a straight setter.
Mertens d. Vickery in 3 sets – Mertens had an excellent first round win over Mladenovic and has been cropping up more and more after putting her name on the map during last year’s grass court season when she thrashed an under-the-weather, Eugenie Bouchard in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. I like Mertens to take advantage of this opening in the draw.
Niculescu d. Flipkens in 2 sets – A different player has won their last four matches with Niculescu prevailing rather comfortably in Luxembourg last year. I’m going against that pattern and sticking with Niculescu as I think that Flipkens will struggle to break her game down.
Cabrera d. Fett in 3 sets – An unexpected second round match which gets the night match with the Aussie in action. Cabrera has actually won their two previous matches which both took place last year.
WTA Hobart R1 Predictions for Monday
Day 2 – 3/5
Bertens d. Beck in 3 sets – A baffling head-to-head, Bertens leads it 5-0! This included two wins in 2016 and a second round win over Beck in Hobart last year. Tough to predict against Bertens but would expect a battle as both are looking for their first wins of 2017.
Vickery d. Pereira in 3 sets – After such a great year in 2015, Pereira had a shocker in 2016 and is currently ranked outside of the world’s top 200. Credit to the Brazilian though who came through three rounds of qualifying, notching a solid win over Mandy Minella on Sunday. Vickery got in as lucky loser but I think she might battle her way through this one with a second opportunity.
Mladenovic d. Mertens in 3 sets – A tough turnaround for Mladenovic but she should be on a high after the Hopman Cup run. Her performance in singles was erratic so this could be a tricky one against the improving, Mertens.
Tsurenko d. Soler-Espinosa in 2 sets – I’d take Tsurenko if she has recovered from the viral illness that forced her to pull out of Brisbane.
Kr. Pliskova d. Larsson in 3 sets – Larsson is the number 11 seed (!) but this feels very close. Pliskova ended 2016 in much improved form and started 2017 with a tight three set loss to Konta in Shenzhen which is no shame. Pliskova for the win…
WTA Hobart R1 Predictions for Sunday
Day 1 – 2/4
Rogers d. Sevastova in 3 sets – Rogers had a good start in Brisbane and pushed Svitolina deep into a third set. Sevastova had a tough loss in her first match of the season, missing match points to Kristyna Pliskova. Sevastova’s the seed but I think this will be very competitive.
Doi d. Cabrera in 2 sets – A great opportunity for Cabrera but going for Doi.
Jankovic d. Niculescu in 3 sets – Oh joyyyyy! Niculescu has won their last two matches including a gruelling match in Doha last year, 7-5 in the third set. Tough to say with still little data to go on for 2017 but my instinct is that Jankovic will come away with the “upset” win.
Voskoboeva d. Parmentier in 3 sets – No strong opinions on this one, I like Voskoboeva’s game.
Full Draw Predictions
Not bothering with draw predictions for Hobart as first round action will start before the manyyyyy qualifiers/lucky losers are placed.
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